This marks the conclusion of Talk Mobile 2013. After fifty episodes, more than a hundred breakout videos, and two hundred essays, it's time to wind down the insanity and take a step back an look back at what all transpired. While Talk Mobile brought new tools to the mix, both technical and editorial, the crowning accomplishment was the conversation - not between the writers, but the community.

And that's a conversation that has only just begun.

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This marks the conclusion of Talk Mobile 2013. After fifty episodes, more than a hundred breakout videos, and two hundred essays, it's time to wind down the insanity and take a step back an look back at what all transpired. While Talk Mobile brought new tools to the mix, both technical and editorial, the crowning accomplishment was the conversation - not between the writers, but the community.

Mobile You. The last of ten weeks of Talk Mobile 2013, and it was all-too-appropriately all about you. From how to find the right smartphone for you to how to customize that phone to how to manage your family of mobile devices and mobile device users, week ten was about the mobile you.

The modern smartphone is a beast that has changed the way that we live and communicate. It's uniquely personal and yet is our gateway to the furthest reaches of the globe. Unsurprisingly, you had a lot to say about that.

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Mobile You. The last of ten weeks of Talk Mobile 2013, and it was all-too-appropriately all about you. From how to find the right smartphone for you to how to customize that phone to how to manage your family of mobile devices and mobile device users, week ten was about the mobile you.

The modern smartphone is a beast that has changed the way that we live and communicate. It's uniquely personal and yet is our gateway to the furthest reaches of the globe. Unsurprisingly, you had a lot to say about that.

For all the time we've spent in Talk Mobile talking about specs, services, carriers, and usage, we haven't spent much time on what these devices look like. Sure, they're mostly glass slabs with white or black framing (with a few exceptions), but beyond that glass, what else is there?

With unit sales moving well past the millions monthly, with people willing to line up overnight to be among the first to own a device, has fashion become a defining characteristic of a smartphone? Is consumer fever over devices like the new gold-colored iPhone 5s just a fluke, or part of a larger trend?

So just how important is fashion with your smartphone? Is it better to be able to customize the software or the hardware? Are our smartphones to be accessorized, or are they already accessories themselves, primed to be swapped out to match your shoes or your shirt?

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For all the time we've spent in Talk Mobile talking about specs, services, carriers, and usage, we haven't spent much time on what these devices look like. Sure, they're mostly glass slabs with white or black framing (with a few exceptions), but beyond that glass, what else is there?

With unit sales moving well past the millions monthly, with people willing to line up overnight to be among the first to own a device, has fashion become a defining characteristic of a smartphone? Is consumer fever over devices like the new gold-colored iPhone 5s just a fluke, or part of a larger trend?

So just how important is fashion with your smartphone? Is it better to be able to customize the software or the hardware? Are our smartphones to be accessorized, or are they already accessories themselves, primed to be swapped out to match your shoes or your shirt?

]]>Fri, 11 Oct 2013 16:00:07 +0000Talk Mobile181902 at http://crackberry.comhttp://crackberry.com/talk-mobile/customization-colors-and-accessories-making-smartphone-fashionable-talk-mobile#commentsYou, too, can be internet famous - but do you want that? - Talk Mobilehttp://crackberry.com/talk-mobile/you-too-can-be-internet-famous-do-you-want-talk-mobile

More than anything in the past, the internet offers the opportunity to rocket your notoriety into the stratosphere overnight. News used to run in a daily cycle, with the morning newspaper, maybe an afternoon edition, and the evening news.

Today the news runs in an unending unstopping cycle, augmented, supplemented, and in large part supplanted by social networking and media. What you do that ends up online can bring instant and overnight fame - and that might not be a good thing

So just how famous can you be on the internet, can your fame transcend this world of fiber, silicon, and electrons? Can your photos bring you fame in the same manner as your words, or will it just be the photos themselves that achieve fame? Is it possible to leverage that fame into income, or are you destined to be burdened with your profitless notoriety?

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More than anything in the past, the internet offers the opportunity to rocket your notoriety into the stratosphere overnight. News used to run in a daily cycle, with the morning newspaper, maybe an afternoon edition, and the evening news.

Today the news runs in an unending unstopping cycle, augmented, supplemented, and in large part supplanted by social networking and media. What you do that ends up online can bring instant and overnight fame - and that might not be a good thing

So just how famous can you be on the internet, can your fame transcend this world of fiber, silicon, and electrons? Can your photos bring you fame in the same manner as your words, or will it just be the photos themselves that achieve fame? Is it possible to leverage that fame into income, or are you destined to be burdened with your profitless notoriety?

We humans are social characters by nature. We gather with friends, we pair off with mates, we love and care about our families to the point of being irrational. Modern technology enables those bonds to transcend space and time, but they add a whole new layer of complication to our lives.

The same decision making processes that we have to apply to making our own smartphone purchasing decisions have to be applied to purchasing smartphones, picking cellular plans, and signing onto cloud services. Except more so, because you're going to have to deal with these people on a regular basis.

So what's the best way to set up your family's comprehensive computing ecosystem? Are these shared data plans that the carriers have hoisted up on us a good deal for us, or the carrier? And are our favorite manufacturers, carriers, and developers treating everybody in our families fairly?

Let's get the conversation started!

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We humans are social characters by nature. We gather with friends, we pair off with mates, we love and care about our families to the point of being irrational. Modern technology enables those bonds to transcend space and time, but they add a whole new layer of complication to our lives.

The same decision making processes that we have to apply to making our own smartphone purchasing decisions have to be applied to purchasing smartphones, picking cellular plans, and signing onto cloud services. Except more so, because you're going to have to deal with these people on a regular basis.

So what's the best way to set up your family's comprehensive computing ecosystem? Are these shared data plans that the carriers have hoisted up on us a good deal for us, or the carrier? And are our favorite manufacturers, carriers, and developers treating everybody in our families fairly?

For the longest time your options with mobile devices were limited. If you wanted a smartphone, chances are you'd be getting one with a physical keyboard, either the Treo/BlackBerry-style "candybar" smartphone or a horizontal slider. If you wanted a tablet, you were looking at a thick stylus-driven experience mated to laptop-style internals. And if you wanted a laptop, well, you could get one of those, but couldn't expect anything better than a few hours battery life in a slow and bulky package.

Today things have changed. Smartphones are available in a variety of form factors from numerous manufacturers on multiple platforms. Tablets have ditched their laptop origins in favor of chipsets that more closely parallel their smartphone cousins. Laptops are thinner, lighter, more powerful, and longer-lasting than ever before.

Even some old technologies - like the stylus - have found a new life in today's devices. So just which one is right for whom, and which one is right for you?

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For the longest time your options with mobile devices were limited. If you wanted a smartphone, chances are you'd be getting one with a physical keyboard, either the Treo/BlackBerry-style "candybar" smartphone or a horizontal slider. If you wanted a tablet, you were looking at a thick stylus-driven experience mated to laptop-style internals. And if you wanted a laptop, well, you could get one of those, but couldn't expect anything better than a few hours battery life in a slow and bulky package.

Today things have changed. Smartphones are available in a variety of form factors from numerous manufacturers on multiple platforms. Tablets have ditched their laptop origins in favor of chipsets that more closely parallel their smartphone cousins. Laptops are thinner, lighter, more powerful, and longer-lasting than ever before.

Even some old technologies - like the stylus - have found a new life in today's devices. So just which one is right for whom, and which one is right for you?

]]>Tue, 08 Oct 2013 16:02:14 +0000Talk Mobile181836 at http://crackberry.comhttp://crackberry.com/talk-mobile/finding-spot-you-mobile-device-spectrum-talk-mobile#commentsWhat you need from a smartphone, what you want, and how to get it - Talk Mobilehttp://crackberry.com/talk-mobile/what-you-need-from-smartphone-what-you-want-and-how-to-get-it-talk-mobile

Back in late 2009, CrackBerry's Kevin Michaluk composed what he termed "the smartphone hierarchy of needs". Based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which stretched from the physiological (food, water, shelter, air, etc) to self-actualization (creativity, morality, purpose, meaning, etc), Kevin's hierarchy sought to classify what he looked for in a smartphone, and in what order.

The pyramid put connectivity, compatibility, and security as the base and apps selection at the tip. Coming from a long-time BlackBerry user, placing communications as the foundational, most-important aspect of a smartphone was no surprise, nor was it surprising to find battery life and reliability at the next step up. But since 2009, the world of mobile technology has radically changed. Smartphones are both more specialized and more broad.

So what best fits the mobile communicator, the app addict, the media consumer, or the mobile artist and writer? Are there one-size-fits-all platforms or smartphones, and do different user types have their own needs from their devices and services? Does the smartphone hierarchy of needs still have a place today - does it need a slight update, or to be scrapped wholesale in place of something different.

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Back in late 2009, CrackBerry's Kevin Michaluk composed what he termed "the smartphone hierarchy of needs". Based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which stretched from the physiological (food, water, shelter, air, etc) to self-actualization (creativity, morality, purpose, meaning, etc), Kevin's hierarchy sought to classify what he looked for in a smartphone, and in what order.

The pyramid put connectivity, compatibility, and security as the base and apps selection at the tip. Coming from a long-time BlackBerry user, placing communications as the foundational, most-important aspect of a smartphone was no surprise, nor was it surprising to find battery life and reliability at the next step up. But since 2009, the world of mobile technology has radically changed. Smartphones are both more specialized and more broad.

So what best fits the mobile communicator, the app addict, the media consumer, or the mobile artist and writer? Are there one-size-fits-all platforms or smartphones, and do different user types have their own needs from their devices and services? Does the smartphone hierarchy of needs still have a place today - does it need a slight update, or to be scrapped wholesale in place of something different.

Having a smartphone isn't enough anymore. Our mobile devices exist in a whole ecosystem of accessories, from connected speakers to fitness monitors to thermostats, refrigerators, and cars. We've gone from standalone devices that queried the internet to cloud-connected mobile hubs that coordinate all of the devices in our lives. The smartphone has domain over everything, and now it's time for you to sound off on that!

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Having a smartphone isn't enough anymore. Our mobile devices exist in a whole ecosystem of accessories, from connected speakers to fitness monitors to thermostats, refrigerators, and cars. We've gone from standalone devices that queried the internet to cloud-connected mobile hubs that coordinate all of the devices in our lives. The smartphone has domain over everything, and now it's time for you to sound off on that!

There's one thing we can be almost certain of in the years to come: we're going to wear and carry more tech with us every day. Our smartphones will be more powerful, our watches smarter, and our glasses more connected. We'll carry sensors and radios everywhere, and they'll collect more data than ever before. But what are we going to do with that, where are we going to access it all, and how will we be entertained by it?

Increased connectivity and more devices mean new challenges to be faced. How are we to overcome the restrictions of our packet-driven internet system in order to move television from switched digital transmission to IP? How are we going to build watches that are smart enough to be useful, but still small enough to not be cumbersome, and well-designed enough that we're willing to wear and use them?

How are we going to get to a point where we have displays everywhere with an omnipresent artificially intelligent computer assistant following us everywhere and anticipating our needs? How are we going to meet the challenges of terrain, signage, weather, and - most of all - human drivers to make driverless cars a reality? It's time to talk about the connected future.

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There's one thing we can be almost certain of in the years to come: we're going to wear and carry more tech with us every day. Our smartphones will be more powerful, our watches smarter, and our glasses more connected. We'll carry sensors and radios everywhere, and they'll collect more data than ever before. But what are we going to do with that, where are we going to access it all, and how will we be entertained by it?

Increased connectivity and more devices mean new challenges to be faced. How are we to overcome the restrictions of our packet-driven internet system in order to move television from switched digital transmission to IP? How are we going to build watches that are smart enough to be useful, but still small enough to not be cumbersome, and well-designed enough that we're willing to wear and use them?

How are we going to get to a point where we have displays everywhere with an omnipresent artificially intelligent computer assistant following us everywhere and anticipating our needs? How are we going to meet the challenges of terrain, signage, weather, and - most of all - human drivers to make driverless cars a reality? It's time to talk about the connected future.

When it comes to expensive purchases, cars rank right up there. Not only are they designed to go fast, they're designed to do so in relative comfort and safety, while costing as little to do so as possible. Even with all of that design they're still complicated machines to operate. Yet, they can simultaneously be boring. What's engaging about coasting down an open stretch of highway? Nothing.

So we've devised ways to keep ourselves entertained, typically through passive entertainment from the likes of music or talk radio playing through the car's stereo. But recently the smartphone has stood to change the way we think about entertainment in the car, along with disrupting other things.

So how can we put mobile to work to provide the same level of entertainment in our cars as it does in our homes? Are the mapping services on our smartphones good enough to replace a dedicated GPS unit in the car? And is it even safe to be using these things while we drive?

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When it comes to expensive purchases, cars rank right up there. Not only are they designed to go fast, they're designed to do so in relative comfort and safety, while costing as little to do so as possible. Even with all of that design they're still complicated machines to operate. Yet, they can simultaneously be boring. What's engaging about coasting down an open stretch of highway? Nothing.

So we've devised ways to keep ourselves entertained, typically through passive entertainment from the likes of music or talk radio playing through the car's stereo. But recently the smartphone has stood to change the way we think about entertainment in the car, along with disrupting other things.

So how can we put mobile to work to provide the same level of entertainment in our cars as it does in our homes? Are the mapping services on our smartphones good enough to replace a dedicated GPS unit in the car? And is it even safe to be using these things while we drive?

Over the years our homes have gradually improved, with better insulation, more efficient heating and cooling, modern layouts, and exceedingly solid building codes. But the infusion of technology into our homes has been slow, incremental, and typically severely isolated.

Sure, there have been computerized home automation systems for decades, but they've generally been unwieldy, expensive, and difficult to install in even new builds (let alone existing homes). But maybe rise of lightweight operating systems, miniaturized sensors, wireless networking, and cloud technology can making the automated house more of reality than we ever thought possible?

How can mobile technology and connectivity make our homes safer and more secure? And what good can a smartphone or tablet do us in the kitchen, or helping out with chores around the house? And when are we going to get to the day where every surface is an interface - and should every surface be an interface anyway?

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Over the years our homes have gradually improved, with better insulation, more efficient heating and cooling, modern layouts, and exceedingly solid building codes. But the infusion of technology into our homes has been slow, incremental, and typically severely isolated.

Sure, there have been computerized home automation systems for decades, but they've generally been unwieldy, expensive, and difficult to install in even new builds (let alone existing homes). But maybe rise of lightweight operating systems, miniaturized sensors, wireless networking, and cloud technology can making the automated house more of reality than we ever thought possible?

How can mobile technology and connectivity make our homes safer and more secure? And what good can a smartphone or tablet do us in the kitchen, or helping out with chores around the house? And when are we going to get to the day where every surface is an interface - and should every surface be an interface anyway?

Early on a smartphone accessory used to be something like a case or a holster, or maybe a Bluetooth headset if you were a real power user. But with increasingly powerful, efficient, and miniaturized sensors, memory, and processors, it's become possible for these accessories to become much more than that.

Our smartphones are no longer the only piece of connected technology we can carry with us everywhere we go. Fitness trackers and health monitors have exploded onto the market in recent years, as have sleep monitoring devices and a wide array of nutrition and medical apps and services. They're beginning to change how we live, taking data about our lives and spitting out quantifiable information that we can use to make better choices.

Or so they say. But can technology really help us in our exercise and enable us to be more fit? Are these nutrition apps and services good enough to do what they claim to do, or is it all in our heads? Can you get a more restful sleep with a connected wristband or clip-on monitor? And can all of this technology help us be healthier and make better medical decisions?

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Early on a smartphone accessory used to be something like a case or a holster, or maybe a Bluetooth headset if you were a real power user. But with increasingly powerful, efficient, and miniaturized sensors, memory, and processors, it's become possible for these accessories to become much more than that.

Our smartphones are no longer the only piece of connected technology we can carry with us everywhere we go. Fitness trackers and health monitors have exploded onto the market in recent years, as have sleep monitoring devices and a wide array of nutrition and medical apps and services. They're beginning to change how we live, taking data about our lives and spitting out quantifiable information that we can use to make better choices.

Or so they say. But can technology really help us in our exercise and enable us to be more fit? Are these nutrition apps and services good enough to do what they claim to do, or is it all in our heads? Can you get a more restful sleep with a connected wristband or clip-on monitor? And can all of this technology help us be healthier and make better medical decisions?

If there's one industry that didn't expect to be upended by mobile devices, it's the entertainment industry. The music, television, and radio empires are domains of the status quo. They've established dominance and usage behaviors for the public, and they're perfectly happy with how things have been.

Mobile devices and their ever-increasing connectivity options and speeds have upended entertainment. Now able to get more information more quickly than ever wherever they want, users are asking the same questions about their entertainment.

So just where do smartphones and tablets fit into the home theater set-up - are they just for serving content, or can you use them to control all of the home theater stack as well? Can we use our smartphones to broadcast music through the entire house, without wires or hassle? And how has mobile changed how we watch TV and listen to traditional radio?

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If there's one industry that didn't expect to be upended by mobile devices, it's the entertainment industry. The music, television, and radio empires are domains of the status quo. They've established dominance and usage behaviors for the public, and they're perfectly happy with how things have been.

Mobile devices and their ever-increasing connectivity options and speeds have upended entertainment. Now able to get more information more quickly than ever wherever they want, users are asking the same questions about their entertainment.

So just where do smartphones and tablets fit into the home theater set-up - are they just for serving content, or can you use them to control all of the home theater stack as well? Can we use our smartphones to broadcast music through the entire house, without wires or hassle? And how has mobile changed how we watch TV and listen to traditional radio?

Mobile devices have enabled a whole new category of creativity, allowing us to do things we've never been able to do before. They've put a camera in our pocket wherever we go, they've permitted anybody to engage in business anywhere, and they've changed the way we listen to music. Is it good, is that bad? It's time for you, the reader, to sound off.

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Mobile devices have enabled a whole new category of creativity, allowing us to do things we've never been able to do before. They've put a camera in our pocket wherever we go, they've permitted anybody to engage in business anywhere, and they've changed the way we listen to music. Is it good, is that bad? It's time for you, the reader, to sound off.

All this week we've talked about mobile creativity and productivity, be it what we can do with cameras or speakers or business apps. Today we're going to talk about those same things, but not so much what we can do today, but what we'll be able to do tomorrow. It's time to tackle the future of creativity and mobile business.

There's no doubt that the sensors, processors, radios, screens, and batteries that comprise our phones will improve over time. It's the inexorable march forward of technology. These better bits and the inevitable new bits will make things faster and open new avenues of computing. But what will we be able to do with these new things?

Just what does the future of mobile photography look like, and will it be good enough for us to never regret leaving the point-and-shoot at home? Is it lagging technology or corporate resistance that's holding back mobile video? And how can our smartphones make us even more productive while on the go?

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All this week we've talked about mobile creativity and productivity, be it what we can do with cameras or speakers or business apps. Today we're going to talk about those same things, but not so much what we can do today, but what we'll be able to do tomorrow. It's time to tackle the future of creativity and mobile business.

There's no doubt that the sensors, processors, radios, screens, and batteries that comprise our phones will improve over time. It's the inexorable march forward of technology. These better bits and the inevitable new bits will make things faster and open new avenues of computing. But what will we be able to do with these new things?

Just what does the future of mobile photography look like, and will it be good enough for us to never regret leaving the point-and-shoot at home? Is it lagging technology or corporate resistance that's holding back mobile video? And how can our smartphones make us even more productive while on the go?

It used to be that the Dells, ThinkPads, and BlackBerries ruled the business world, and your average road warrior carried a business-issued tablet and smartphone to get things done. Today, things are looking different. Not only have Windows Phone, Android, and iOS smartphones found their place in the boardroom, on the factory floor, in the cubicles, and out in the field, they're more capable and more connected than ever.

Does all of that mean that mobile can be better for business? Is having a smartphone or a tablet all the computing power you need to start and run a business, or do you need a laptop or desktop computer to do serious business work?

With mobile can we finally move to a cashless society? And can we do all of our business things like inventory management, document editing, spreadsheet data entry, and everything else on a mobile device, or is it just too much of a pain?

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It used to be that the Dells, ThinkPads, and BlackBerries ruled the business world, and your average road warrior carried a business-issued tablet and smartphone to get things done. Today, things are looking different. Not only have Windows Phone, Android, and iOS smartphones found their place in the boardroom, on the factory floor, in the cubicles, and out in the field, they're more capable and more connected than ever.

Does all of that mean that mobile can be better for business? Is having a smartphone or a tablet all the computing power you need to start and run a business, or do you need a laptop or desktop computer to do serious business work?

With mobile can we finally move to a cashless society? And can we do all of our business things like inventory management, document editing, spreadsheet data entry, and everything else on a mobile device, or is it just too much of a pain?

While many of us owned standalone cameras, be they point-and-shoots or DSLRs (or even going back to ye olde days of film SLRs), far fewer ever owned a standalone video camera. The camcorder was always a far more bulky and balky beast, requiring massive batteries and recording onto magnetic film cassettes and then smaller cassettes and then removable hard drives and large flash disks before finally getting to the point where something like an SD card was a viable option.

Digitization and miniaturization solved the bulky problem, but no amount of SD cards or flip-out touch screens seemed to be able to fix the balky problem, or the price. When smartphones with integrated cameras started showing up in the hands of consumers around the globe, the traditional camcorder was put on just as much notice as the point-and-shoot photo camera.

But are smartphones good enough to replace the camcorder? And with everything that smartphones can do, is it feasible to edit video on one? Can you really use a smartphone to stream live video to the web? And how do we keep our videos safe in this ever-connected digital age?

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While many of us owned standalone cameras, be they point-and-shoots or DSLRs (or even going back to ye olde days of film SLRs), far fewer ever owned a standalone video camera. The camcorder was always a far more bulky and balky beast, requiring massive batteries and recording onto magnetic film cassettes and then smaller cassettes and then removable hard drives and large flash disks before finally getting to the point where something like an SD card was a viable option.

Digitization and miniaturization solved the bulky problem, but no amount of SD cards or flip-out touch screens seemed to be able to fix the balky problem, or the price. When smartphones with integrated cameras started showing up in the hands of consumers around the globe, the traditional camcorder was put on just as much notice as the point-and-shoot photo camera.

But are smartphones good enough to replace the camcorder? And with everything that smartphones can do, is it feasible to edit video on one? Can you really use a smartphone to stream live video to the web? And how do we keep our videos safe in this ever-connected digital age?

Your typical smartphone has two speakers. One is an earpiece for the phone part (it does make calls, right?), the other a loud speaker for speakerphone (there's that phone again…), music, games, and the like. A few handsets, like the HTC One, along with a handful of tablets, sport stereo loudspeakers, but by and large we're still only looking at two speakers.

These speakers carry the duty of all audio communication coming from our phones, unless you plug in some headphones or hook up an external speaker, that is. But even then, that's still audio coming from your phone. Our screens are important communications components for our phones, but just as important can be the speakers.

So why, does it seem, so often that what's coming out of them isn't so great? Are our VoIP protocols to blame? Or is it just mobile? Are the microphones and software available good enough for real podcasting? And does mobile have place on the theater stage or in the DJ booth?

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Your typical smartphone has two speakers. One is an earpiece for the phone part (it does make calls, right?), the other a loud speaker for speakerphone (there's that phone again…), music, games, and the like. A few handsets, like the HTC One, along with a handful of tablets, sport stereo loudspeakers, but by and large we're still only looking at two speakers.

These speakers carry the duty of all audio communication coming from our phones, unless you plug in some headphones or hook up an external speaker, that is. But even then, that's still audio coming from your phone. Our screens are important communications components for our phones, but just as important can be the speakers.

So why, does it seem, so often that what's coming out of them isn't so great? Are our VoIP protocols to blame? Or is it just mobile? Are the microphones and software available good enough for real podcasting? And does mobile have place on the theater stage or in the DJ booth?

The camera. If there's any part of the smartphone that's seen its usage rate skyrocket over the past few years, that'd be it. Smartphone cameras have gone from little VGA shooters barely worthy of being called a camera to 12, 20, and even 41 megapixel beasts with image quality unfathomable just a few short years ago.

We now walk almost everywhere with a small camera in our pockets or purses, logged in to Facebook and Instagram and Twitter, ready to share our latest heartwarming, heartbreaking, intense, intriguing, and inane moments with our family, our friends, and the world.

So are mobile phone cameras really good enough to replace a dedicated point-and-shoot camera? What about a bigger traditional DSLR? With these photos ever easier to share and reshare, how can we be sure that the photos we take that need to be private stay private?

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The camera. If there's any part of the smartphone that's seen its usage rate skyrocket over the past few years, that'd be it. Smartphone cameras have gone from little VGA shooters barely worthy of being called a camera to 12, 20, and even 41 megapixel beasts with image quality unfathomable just a few short years ago.

We now walk almost everywhere with a small camera in our pockets or purses, logged in to Facebook and Instagram and Twitter, ready to share our latest heartwarming, heartbreaking, intense, intriguing, and inane moments with our family, our friends, and the world.

So are mobile phone cameras really good enough to replace a dedicated point-and-shoot camera? What about a bigger traditional DSLR? With these photos ever easier to share and reshare, how can we be sure that the photos we take that need to be private stay private?

Talk Mobile Carriers Week was one of our most contentious weeks of Talk Mobile yet, as carrier tend to be such a subject. We dove right in, tackling what carriers are doing right, what they're doing wrong, and how we can fix it all. Really it all boiled down to "give me the phones I want, don't make me pay too much for them, and give me my data free of encumbrances." Is that really too much to ask?

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Talk Mobile Carriers Week was one of our most contentious weeks of Talk Mobile yet, as carrier tend to be such a subject. We dove right in, tackling what carriers are doing right, what they're doing wrong, and how we can fix it all. Really it all boiled down to "give me the phones I want, don't make me pay too much for them, and give me my data free of encumbrances." Is that really too much to ask?

In the coming years we can expect mobile operating systems to become more efficient, more capable, and more flexible, and there's little doubt that the phones they run on will last longer, be thinner and faster, and have better cameras, screens, speakers, and build quality. The platform and device builders have the most to lose - competitors can spring up out of nowhere, they can pivot quickly, and they can easily attract mind and market share.

Carriers, on the other hand, tend to be slower moving beasts, mostly protectionist and reactionary. With most customers locked into two- or three-year contracts, customer retention is a long-term game. Improving coverage and service for a network operator is a multi-billion operation.

So where do carriers go from here? Can we move to an era of net neutrality and dumb pipes, or is it a pipe dream? Will VoLTE free up enough spectrum to make it worthwhile? And what's the deal with all these carriers merging and buying each other out?

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In the coming years we can expect mobile operating systems to become more efficient, more capable, and more flexible, and there's little doubt that the phones they run on will last longer, be thinner and faster, and have better cameras, screens, speakers, and build quality. The platform and device builders have the most to lose - competitors can spring up out of nowhere, they can pivot quickly, and they can easily attract mind and market share.

Carriers, on the other hand, tend to be slower moving beasts, mostly protectionist and reactionary. With most customers locked into two- or three-year contracts, customer retention is a long-term game. Improving coverage and service for a network operator is a multi-billion operation.

So where do carriers go from here? Can we move to an era of net neutrality and dumb pipes, or is it a pipe dream? Will VoLTE free up enough spectrum to make it worthwhile? And what's the deal with all these carriers merging and buying each other out?

We will always advocate picking your carrier before picking your phone, but sometimes the allure of a specific phone can be too much to overcome. Millions switched to AT&T to get access to the first four iPhones, BlackBerry faithful jumped to Verizon and Vodafone to get the first BlackBerry Storm, and old Palm fans moved to Sprint to pick up a Palm Pre. They made these moves not out of interest in monthly savings or coverage, but for a specific device - one exclusive to that carrier.

These carrier exclusives have long been a fact of life in the smartphone space, but with smartphones becoming something that even the average consumer has an opinion on, they're increasingly becoming more of a headache. When it comes to smartphones, there's little worse than the new hotness landing on a different carrier than yours and you finding yourself a year away from getting out of your contract without forking over a heft ETF.

Exclusives can be good for manufacturers, no doubt. But can they be bad for them too? And are they bad for consumers outside of the frustration of denial? And what about all of the apps and services that the carrier insists on loading on these handsets - are they useful, or just useless bloat?

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We will always advocate picking your carrier before picking your phone, but sometimes the allure of a specific phone can be too much to overcome. Millions switched to AT&T to get access to the first four iPhones, BlackBerry faithful jumped to Verizon and Vodafone to get the first BlackBerry Storm, and old Palm fans moved to Sprint to pick up a Palm Pre. They made these moves not out of interest in monthly savings or coverage, but for a specific device - one exclusive to that carrier.

These carrier exclusives have long been a fact of life in the smartphone space, but with smartphones becoming something that even the average consumer has an opinion on, they're increasingly becoming more of a headache. When it comes to smartphones, there's little worse than the new hotness landing on a different carrier than yours and you finding yourself a year away from getting out of your contract without forking over a heft ETF.

Exclusives can be good for manufacturers, no doubt. But can they be bad for them too? And are they bad for consumers outside of the frustration of denial? And what about all of the apps and services that the carrier insists on loading on these handsets - are they useful, or just useless bloat?

If you're a long time CrackBerry reader, you'll know I get extremely **passionate** about the subject of phone keyboards. Communicating -- whether emailing, texting, BBM'ing, WhatsApp'ing, etc. -- is one of the things a user does most frequently when picking up their phone, and the keyboard plays an important role in just how efficient and enjoyable that experience is.

When the subject of keyboards came up earlier in Talk Mobile, I went on a Kevin-rant during our Talk Mobile Keyboard hangout, going through my long list of things that matter and should be considered in determining the phone and typing experience that best fits an individual's needs. Inspired by that philosophy and pulling in from our Talk Mobile survey data, we turned it into an awesome infographic.

Click the image or link below to see it in all its glory, and be sure to share it with your slow typing friends that complain they hate their keyboard (likely not BlackBerry users... just say'n!).

If you're a long time CrackBerry reader, you'll know I get extremely **passionate** about the subject of phone keyboards. Communicating -- whether emailing, texting, BBM'ing, WhatsApp'ing, etc. -- is one of the things a user does most frequently when picking up their phone, and the keyboard plays an important role in just how efficient and enjoyable that experience is.

When the subject of keyboards came up earlier in Talk Mobile, I went on a Kevin-rant during our Talk Mobile Keyboard hangout, going through my long list of things that matter and should be considered in determining the phone and typing experience that best fits an individual's needs. Inspired by that philosophy and pulling in from our Talk Mobile survey data, we turned it into an awesome infographic.

Click the image or link below to see it in all its glory, and be sure to share it with your slow typing friends that complain they hate their keyboard (likely not BlackBerry users... just say'n!).

]]>Wed, 28 Aug 2013 16:59:53 +0000Kevin Michaluk181234 at http://crackberry.comhttp://crackberry.com/my-long-standing-keyboard-philosophy-turned-infographic#commentsWhenever, wherever: Why you can't just use any phone on any carrier - Talk Mobilehttp://crackberry.com/talk-mobile/whenever-wherever-why-you-cant-use-any-phone-on-any-carrier-talk-mobile

Chances are you've encountered it at some point. You go out into the country, or into a certain part of town, and you lose signal from your carrier. But another network is out there, and it picks up the slack. You're roaming.

Unlike the buffalo of yore, roaming onto other carriers isn't a carefree experience. It wasn't until recently that no-cost-to-you roaming agreements were in place for most major carriers, at least domestically. International roaming's a different beast, and as it would turn out, a very expensive one.

Things have been complicated by the introduction of varying implementations of LTE. The phones might support it, but the carriers being large multinational telecommunications conglomerates are slow to adapt to changing circumstances, even if they've already overcome similar circumstances before.

So what's it going to take to have more devices that support every carrier? What's holding up LTE agreements? And just why is international roaming so damn expensive?

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Chances are you've encountered it at some point. You go out into the country, or into a certain part of town, and you lose signal from your carrier. But another network is out there, and it picks up the slack. You're roaming.

Unlike the buffalo of yore, roaming onto other carriers isn't a carefree experience. It wasn't until recently that no-cost-to-you roaming agreements were in place for most major carriers, at least domestically. International roaming's a different beast, and as it would turn out, a very expensive one.

Things have been complicated by the introduction of varying implementations of LTE. The phones might support it, but the carriers being large multinational telecommunications conglomerates are slow to adapt to changing circumstances, even if they've already overcome similar circumstances before.

So what's it going to take to have more devices that support every carrier? What's holding up LTE agreements? And just why is international roaming so damn expensive?

Cellular carriers are strange entities. They offer devices that in the grand scheme aren't that expensive for what they are, but yet have customers conditioned to expect them to be much cheaper and not think about the long-term cost. They built empires around multi-year contracts, but in an age where mobile technology was advancing at a rate that was positively lethargic compared to today.

They fell into a routine, picking up the old habits, policies, and mindsets of the landline era. The largest carriers are merely permutations of the old wireline telecoms - AT&T and Verizon can both trace their lineage back to the old AT&T monopoly, Sprint began life as the Brown Telephone Company in 1899, T-Mobile comes from the post-World War II German post office, and so on.

So is it history that explains why cellular carriers are lumped in with banks, airlines, and the cable provider as the most hated of companies? Or is it something else in how they do business?

Do they really suck that much, or is it all in our heads?

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Cellular carriers are strange entities. They offer devices that in the grand scheme aren't that expensive for what they are, but yet have customers conditioned to expect them to be much cheaper and not think about the long-term cost. They built empires around multi-year contracts, but in an age where mobile technology was advancing at a rate that was positively lethargic compared to today.

They fell into a routine, picking up the old habits, policies, and mindsets of the landline era. The largest carriers are merely permutations of the old wireline telecoms - AT&T and Verizon can both trace their lineage back to the old AT&T monopoly, Sprint began life as the Brown Telephone Company in 1899, T-Mobile comes from the post-World War II German post office, and so on.

So is it history that explains why cellular carriers are lumped in with banks, airlines, and the cable provider as the most hated of companies? Or is it something else in how they do business?

Talk Mobile 2013 has so far touched on the big rocks of devices, operating systems, and services. Now it’s time to touch on the biggest and most expensive rock in the mobile device system: the carriers. Most of us get locked in to two or three year contracts that can add up to thousands of dollars over the life that contract.

Our choice of carrier determines so much. It sets not just the cost of our service, but the quality and extent of our service. The carriers can discriminate on what content we are served, who we call and at what rate, the third-party services we access, the devices we can use, and so much more.

With all of these variables, how are we supposed to pick a carrier? Should we let the device selection dictate our choices, or the service itself? Are there advantages to picking a smaller carrier over the big national brands? And what’s our recourse if we’re not satisfied with our choice?

There’s a lot to discuss when it comes to carriers. Big and small, cheap and expensive, they’re an important part of the mobile ecosystem.

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Talk Mobile 2013 has so far touched on the big rocks of devices, operating systems, and services. Now it’s time to touch on the biggest and most expensive rock in the mobile device system: the carriers. Most of us get locked in to two or three year contracts that can add up to thousands of dollars over the life that contract.

Our choice of carrier determines so much. It sets not just the cost of our service, but the quality and extent of our service. The carriers can discriminate on what content we are served, who we call and at what rate, the third-party services we access, the devices we can use, and so much more.

With all of these variables, how are we supposed to pick a carrier? Should we let the device selection dictate our choices, or the service itself? Are there advantages to picking a smaller carrier over the big national brands? And what’s our recourse if we’re not satisfied with our choice?

There’s a lot to discuss when it comes to carriers. Big and small, cheap and expensive, they’re an important part of the mobile ecosystem.

]]>Mon, 26 Aug 2013 16:00:55 +0000Talk Mobile181174 at http://crackberry.comhttp://crackberry.com/talk-mobile/carriers-picking-the-lesser-of-all-evils-talk-mobile#comments1 Minute Survey: How many times per day do you use your phone for the "basics"?http://crackberry.com/quick-talk-mobile-survey-how-often-do-you-do-basics-your-phone

Talk Mobile Clouds week dove head first into the world of clouds, bridging the internet, mobile, and desktop computing in one fell swoop. It was less about the individual features of each cloud service and more about how these clouds fit into our lives, how they can improve our digital lives, and where they're going in the future.

As always, your feedback is tremendously important to us and continues to help shape and refine Talk Mobile. We're more than half-way through Talk Mobile 2013, but we still want to hear what you think. So there are comments below for you to do just that. Tell us what's great, tell us what sucks - we want to hear it all!

Talk Mobile has always been about elevating the discussion - not just what we write about, but what you in the community are talking about. The Mobile Nations community has definitely stepped up to that challenge, taking on our questions, our statements, and each other in broad and spirited debates about the state of mobile. And really, that shouldn't be a surprise, given how awesome you all are.

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Talk Mobile Clouds week dove head first into the world of clouds, bridging the internet, mobile, and desktop computing in one fell swoop. It was less about the individual features of each cloud service and more about how these clouds fit into our lives, how they can improve our digital lives, and where they're going in the future.

As always, your feedback is tremendously important to us and continues to help shape and refine Talk Mobile. We're more than half-way through Talk Mobile 2013, but we still want to hear what you think. So there are comments below for you to do just that. Tell us what's great, tell us what sucks - we want to hear it all!

Talk Mobile has always been about elevating the discussion - not just what we write about, but what you in the community are talking about. The Mobile Nations community has definitely stepped up to that challenge, taking on our questions, our statements, and each other in broad and spirited debates about the state of mobile. And really, that shouldn't be a surprise, given how awesome you all are.